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The Amazing Kreskin Dies: Famed Mentalist And ’70s Talk Show Staple Was 89


His clever, occasionally self-deprecating and always good-humored mentalist routines made him a talk show favorite.

The Amazing Kreskin, whose clever, occasionally self-deprecating and always good-humored mentalist routines made him a talk show favorite of such hosts as Johnny Carson, Mike Douglas, David Letterman and Howard Stern, died Tuesday, December 10, in New Jersey. Though he eschewed the terms and concepts “psychic,” “medium” and the occult, putting him closer in style to the skeptical illusionists like James Randi and Penn and Teller than spoon-bender Uri Geller, Kreskin nonetheless dazzled audiences with an uncanny ability to locate objects – including his paycheck – hidden by audience members. Born George Joseph Kresge Jr. on January 12, 1935, in Montclair, N.J., Kreskin had barely entered his teens when he began entertaining audiences with his seemingly magic routines.

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